Dining table or counter.



PATENTED JUNE 6, 1905.

N. N. S. MATOOV'ITGH.

DINING TABLE OR COUNTER.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 3, 1904.

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Patented June 6, 1905.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

NICHOLAS N. S. MATCOVITUH, OF OAKLAND, GALlFORNIA.

DINING TABLE OR COUNTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 791,708, dated June 6, 1905.

ioplioatioa file August 3, 1904. Serial No. 219,356.

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Be it known that I, NICHOLAS N. S. MAT- oovrroH, a citizen of the United States, re- Q siding at Oakland, in the county of Alameda and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Dining Tables or Counters, of which the following is a specilication.

My invention relates to improvements in dining tables and counters for restaurants, hotels, eating-stations and the like, especially in localities where it is very cold at cer tain seasons of the year.

The object of my invention is to provide suitable dish-warming means in conjunction with a table or counter, so that plates, platters, side dishes, &c., containing viands which should be served hot may be maintained in heated condition indefinitely after being placed before the diner.

The invention consists of the parts and the construction and combination of parts, as hereinafter more fully described and claimed, having reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan of my improved table, omitting pedestal, with heating means diagrammatically represented. Fig. 2 is a cross-section of my table.

I have here shown my invention applied to a table A, adapted to accommodate four persons, each place arranged with heating means for a plate or platter and two side dishes. It will be obvious that the shape or size of the table is immaterial and that there may be as many dish-heating areas as desired. At each place the table-top is recessed or perforated more or less conformably to the shape of the dishes requiring to be heated, and in each of these recesses or perforations is placed a resistance-coil or electric heater having its terminals suitably connected with a source of supply. As herein represented, the heaters in the platterspaces are designated by numeral 2 and those in the smaller side-dish spaces by numeral 3, and each are connected in parallel through respective wires 4 5, 6 7 with the feed-wires 8 9, which latter connect by wires 8 9 with the respective terminals 10 11 of the main wires 12 13, receiving power from any suitable source. A switch 14 is interposed in each circuit 4 5, 6 7, so that the current may be cut out of or into any heater at any time. A switch 15 in the circuit of wires 12 13 enables the power to be cut off from all the heaters at once. The heaters of course would be made to lie flush with the top of the table, or the surface of the table may be made continuous by means of a metal plate 16, secured over each opening above the contained heater. By this arrangement a person is enabled to seat himself at a table or eating-counter and no mat ter how intense the exterior cold may be each dish placed before him may be kept hot for an indefinite period.

A revolving center stand is often desirable in connection with lunch-counters and the like, and I have shown an arrangement whereby the shelves of this revolving stand may be provided with local heating means. For this purpose the table A has a round central cut-out portion to receive a base or platform 17, supporting the pedestal 18. The platform 17 is preferably of metal and houses the resistances 19, which have each one terminal connecting with a suitable conducting-socket 20, which is concentric with the platform and insulated therefrom and seats over the contact-point 10, on which it pivots. The other terminal of the resistances 19 connects with an annular contact 21, insulated from socket 20 and resting on contact 11. From contacts 20 21 extend wires 2O 21 to other heaters 22, located on supports 23 upon the pedestal and above the plane of the table.

I thus provide a number of locally-heated areas upon which various dishes whose contents should be kept warm or hot may be placed. At the same time the surface of the table, counter, or central supports unoccupied by such dishes remain practically unaffected by the heat and will ofier no inconvenience to the customer, but will rather conduce in every way to his comfort.

It is manifest that the invention is capable current to resistances 19 and 22 is controlled.

Having thus described my invention,what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with a lunch counter or table, of a revoluble center stand including a base, a pedestal sup orted thereon, and supports on the pedesta provided with loca ly-heated areas.

2. The combination with a lunch counter or table having locally-heated areas and having a central opening, of a revoluble center stand having a platform fitting the opening in the table, a conducting-socket carried by but insulated from the platform a contact member fixed to the counter or table and engaged by said socket and about which the latter is revoluble, an annular contact insu-- lated from the socket, electrical connections between said contacts and the locally-heated areas of, the counter or table, a pedestal fixed to the platform, supports on the pedestal having electrical heaters and connections between said contacts and said heaters.

3. An improved lunch counter or table having a central opening and having recesses about the same; electric heaters in said recesses; a central post on the table forming an electrical contact and an annular member on the table formin a second contact; a central revoluble pe estal having a platform resting on said annular contact,

said platform fitting the central opening of 

